brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) (03/14/90)
Keeping track of the numbers of the fax machines that call you is silly, I think. What would make a lot of sense would be extensible phone numbers. After you key in a phone number, the system should let you keep dialing, terminating with a '#' or somesuch as needed. Then the extra digits should be sent to the recipient or PBX or whatever. Those digits might be an extension in the case of a PBX (no need for centrex) or a code to identify who you're calling (fax machine, modem, particular person.) This would also replace the system whereby they give you several numbers that ring differently. Instead you dial suffix digits. Ideally, the telco could assign some codes (say all 3 digit codes starting with 9) for official purposes. These codes would have standard meanings that everybody would obey -- fax machine, e-mail hookup, switchboard, voice-mail message center etc.) Thus all fax machines would use suffix 999, and fax machines would know to add this suffix. Nice trick is that it doesn't hurt to add the suffix when calling a regular number, it's just ignored.